<p>Have read & appreciated (some mentioned above):
Behind the Walls
Second Home
Perfectly Prep
Boys Adrift</p>
<p>And more on the nightstand waiting!</p>
<p>On Race to Nowhere. I saw it in a bit different context, quite some time ago now, before it became widely known. It was shown at the beginning of a selection of parent-related seminars on a Saturday. After the movie, there was a panel Q&A, primarily of psychological & educational types…but they were also joined by the mother of the daughter who committed suicide over a B. She was soft-spoken, unassuming, and utterly genuine. If there were any cynics or doubters in the audience before she spoke, there were none after. And yes, it changed how I parent my kids.</p>
<p>Competitive boarding school admissions has many parallels with competitive college admissions. A good read is “The Gatekeepers” by Jacques Steinberg. He shadowed an admissions officer at Wesleyan for a year. He also has a good blog “The Choice” which is available on the online New York Times.</p>
<p>I’ll add another positive vote for Shamus Khan’s book Privledge. I thought it was an excellent read, and it painted a far more recognizeable portrait of the prep school world than Sarah Chase’s Perfectly Prep–a book that made the Pomfret kids seem really unappealing and shallow. I agree that Preparing for Power made some good points, but agree that it is dated and is not exactly a scintillating read. Loved some of the essays in Second Home.</p>
<p>A book I read and hated: “A Girl’s Guide to Boarding School” which is a vanity press book written by a teenager. It has some jaw-droppingly bad advice to young girls, and is so poorly written that I cringe for her teachers at whatever boarding school she attended. contains no useful information or insight.</p>
<p>On my nightstand:
Casualties of Privlege, Louis Crossier ed.
Testimony (fiction by Anita Shreve. I’m finding it difficult because it’s so sad and disturbing.)</p>
<p>A few more books…especially for parents of girls:</p>
<p>Leonard Sax — “Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls-Sexual Identity, the Cyberbubble, Obsessions, Environmental Toxins” (recommended by curiouscandidate in another thread…Sax also wrote “Boys Adrift”).</p>
<p>Meg Meeker — “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters” (I read this a while ago and really appreciated it…I’d read it well before they are of boarding school age, btw.)</p>
<p>Here’s more from the girls’ point of view: </p>
<p>Making Connections: The Relational Worlds of Adolescent Girls at Emma Willard School
Carol Gilligan; Trudy J. Hanmer; Nona Lyons; Emma Willard School (Troy, N.Y.) (1989)</p>
<p>The Twisted Thread, by Charlotte Bacon
(fiction) A mysterious death at the end of the year in a prestigious New England boarding school.</p>
<p>The author attended a boarding school. She has taught in boarding schools. She knows the environment. The story’s told from the perspectives of various adults.</p>